Children of the Atom #5
The team has their first team-up in Children of the Atom #5, by writer Vita Ayala, artist Paco Medina, colorist David Curiel, and letterer Travis Lanham. This issue is an action banger with a beautiful, emotional core, and it changes everything for the team.
Daycralwer does as he’s told and gets help, heading to the Krakoan embassy and bringing in the X-Men. They attack the U-Men, and Daycrawler frees his team, but the U-Men use their secret weapon- special tech that affects mutants. However, the Children of the Atom overcome it and help the X-Men fight off the U-Men and take them down. In the aftermath of the fight, the team licks their wounds when Storm shows up and invites Gimmick to the Hellfire Gala, revealing to the rest of the team she’s a mutant.
This issue gives Daycrawler the caption boxes, and Ayala pulls out all the stops right off the bat. Daycrawler idolizes his older brother Marvel Guy and doesn’t understand why they can’t be like they used to be. It’s a gut punch right off the back, and his viewpoint captions continue to have that wistful feel throughout the issue- Daycrawler wants to make movies and have Marvel Guy do the soundtracks. He loves being a superhero for obvious reasons but also because it’s the only time his brother treats him well. It’s why he goes and gets the X-Men to help- because he wants to save the day. He wants his brother to love him again, which is why the moment at the end of the issue where the two brothers embrace is so great. It’s a perfect emotional pay-off, further cementing why Ayala is such a great writer.
As for the rest issue, it’s also excellent. It’s perfectly paced and action-packed, with Ayala doing a fantastic job of capturing the two teams in action and working together. One can almost hear the glee in Cyclops-Lass’s voice when Cyclops gives her an order, and Daycrawler and Nightcrawler working together is great. Ayala captures Wolverine perfectly, and it’s great that they included Maggot like in the first issue; he doesn’t get enough love. Taken all together, everything about this issue works perfectly. It has action, character development, and a nice emotional core that makes the whole thing work.
Medina’s art owns as usual. The action scenes look great, and the page layouts, double-page spreads with lots of panels surrounding the splash to illustrate little areas of the battle, are excellent. Curiel’s colors really give every scene the pop and shine they need. One of the best parts of the book is the chill-out pages at the end. Medina and Curiel capture all the characters wonderfully, and their Storm, her white hair matching the white pants suit she’s wearing, is resplendent a vision. Their art really sells the scene of Gimmick’s mutant reveal.
Children of the Atom #5 feels like showing off, honestly. Ayala, Medina, and Curiel are just so good together, and this issue is just them knocking it out of the park page after page. This comic has everything that anyone would want from it. It’s just so good.
